WHEN WILL THE NATIONS BE DASHED IN PIECES?
By James White
THE Saviour foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and her children, and declared it was because they knew not the time of her visitation. Luke xix, 41-44. By this we are to judge that they might have known the time. God never visits a nation or an age in judgment without first warning them of the impending danger. So it was with the Antediluvians, the Sodomites, the Egyptians, the Ninevites, and the Jews. And by these examples we learn, also, that it is not necessary in these warnings that all become convinced of the danger; (for some will not believe;) but it has always been deemed sufficient in the development of God's plan, when those who tremble at his word, and are willing to believe, have been so fully warned that they might have an opportunity to escape. Such was the warning to Noah, to Lot, to the Hebrews, to the people of Nineveh, and to those Jews who believed the preaching of Christ and his apostles. The others of these several ages, having had the same warning, "knew not" till their destruction came upon them. There was no necessity for the ignorance of Jerusalem, for God had spoken of the judgments to be visited upon sins such as hers, by all the prophets, beginning with Moses, who had forewarned them of these very things. See Matt. xxi, 33-45. Thus in all cases God's throne is clear, and they who sin alone have to bear their iniquity. Jerusalem might have known, and knowing, might have averted the impending judgment; for Jesus declared his willingness, yea, his desire often to have gathered her children, but they rejected his offers of mercy. Matt. xxiii, 37. But there was one class who were especially guilty, and more than all others deserving of the wrath which fell upon that guilty nation; to wit, those who were instructed in the word of the Lord, but had "taken away the key of knowledge;" who would neither enter in themselves, nor suffer others who were willing to enter in. Luke xi, 52. Their guilt was like that of the watchman at whose hand the Lord will require the blood of those who fall unwarned. Eze. iii, 17-20. Another destruction, great and terrible, is spoken of in God's word; and it becomes all who have any regard for the word, and the salvation of themselves and their fellow-men, to inquire, against whom the threatenings are pronounced, and at what time they are to be executed. If these judgments be proclaimed, and yet it be not known whether they are near or far off; whether at the coming of Christ or one thousand years subsequent to his coming; or whether the destruction will overtake few or many, the trumpet will then give an uncertain sound, and "who shall prepare himself to the battle?" These different views are being proclaimed; and if the destruction will not take place till a long time after the coming of Christ, or if there be many that will escape that destruction, then those who proclaim the judgments of God as soon coming on "all flesh," or all the unrighteous of earth, are found "false witnesses of God." But if this latter view be truth—if the wrath of God is speedily to be poured out on all the inhabitants of the earth who are not "Christ's at his coming," then those who put afar off the evil day, or promise a way of escape other than that offered through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, are taking away the key of knowledge, and at their hands will be required the blood of those who fall without a warning. Thus it is manifest that, in either case, it is important that we know "what is truth," and that, knowing, we faithfully proclaim it. From all that is said in the Bible respecting the teachings of false prophets, we should be very careful to avoid crying Peace, when the Lord has said, There is no peace. This has been the characteristic of false prophets in all ages, and is to be a prominent delusion in the last days. "For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." There will be those in the last days who will cry peace and safety; but instead of peace there will be war, and instead of safety there will be a snare. Therefore, Zion's watchmen are directed to "Sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel ii, 1. The people are summoned to hear this alarm as follows: "Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken ye people; let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter." Isa. xxxiv, 1, 2. This day is spoken of by all the prophets. Says one, "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wastness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their133gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. i, 14-18. Again in the same book it is said: "My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." Chap. iii, 8. Another prophet says, "Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand, it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isa. xiii, 6, 9. The Lord says by the same prophet, "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." Chap. xxiv, 1, 3. Jeremiah gives an account of this destruction more fully and emphatic than those already quoted, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink unto whom the Lord had sent me: to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; YE SHALL CERTAINLY DRINK. For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried, they shall be dung upon the ground." Jer. xxv, 15-33. It has been supposed that some nations will escape, but such a supposition is here contradicted; the language is clear and definite—the destruction will be universal and utter; and that it will include the heathen, is plainly stated by the prophets. "Thus saith the Lord God; Howl ye, wo worth the day! For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen." Eze. xxx, 2, 3. Another prophet says, "For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen." Obad. 15. And another: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; Beat your plough-shares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about." Joel iii, 9-12. Now that there is to be, at some period of time, an utter destruction of all the inhabitants of the earth, no one who reads the prophecies will deny; and it is most evident that the scriptures here quoted plainly teach it. Had we the privilege of framing the testimony to our own liking, it would be impossible to present it in language more clear and emphatic. I will now notice a few points in these passages which will serve the twofold purpose of showing the identity of these with certain events spoken of in the New Testament, and of locating the chronology of these judgments, or fixing the time of their execution. 1. This warning is given—not because the day of the Lord is nearly expired, nor yet because it is come—but because the day of the Lord is coming; it is near and hasteth greatly; therefore the people are warned of those events which are to transpire when that day is ushered in. This alone is sufficient to show that these judgments are identical with those spoken of in Revelation, which will be inflicted in connection with the coming of the Son of man. See the promise to the Philadelphia church, which will exist at the time of his coming: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Rev. iii, 10-11. 2. The alarm is sounded when a great battle, or universal war, is pending. The Revelator says, in the time of the sixth plague, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty." Again the warning is given in the next verse, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth." Rev. xvi, 13-15. 3. They shall certainly drink; even if they refuse, their refusal is of no avail—it is too late. This must be identical with the threatenings of the Third Angel's Message of Rev. xiv, 9-13, which refer to the plagues, (under which the battle occurs,) in which it is said they "shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture in the cup of his indignation." By comparing the scriptures we find that Eze. ix, is a parallel to these, where an order is given to those who have the slaughter weapons: "Let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women." Verses 5, 6. These all directly refer to the time when the Saviour comes to plead with the Father in behalf of sinful men, and judgment without mercy is made manifest. 4. The voice of God is heard from on high in the midst of these awful scenes. In the description which I have quoted from the prophet Jeremiah it is said, "The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth." Jer. xxv, 30. Says John, "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, it is done." Rev. xvi, 17. When Joel foretold the gathering of "all nations," and "all the heathen," to the valley of Jehoshaphat, he added, "The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake." Joel iii, 15, 16. All will allow that the pouring out of the seventh vial or plague, when the voice of God is heard, is in immediate connection with the coming of Christ; that this description of Joel is very applicable to the same time and event is evident, because with the uttering of the voice of God and the shaking of the heavens and the earth, are connected the signs of Christ's coming. The words of the Saviour are, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven." Matt. xxiv, 29, 30. The prophet says it is the voice of God from on high that shaken "the powers of the heavens," and with this agree the words of the Apostle: "For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven." Heb. xii, 25, 26. 5. When this destruction falls upon the world, God's people will be delivered. It has been claimed that there are exceptions to these general declarations, which is only true if the righteous can be said to form an exceptional class. But I think the term is not strictly applicable—instead of their being exceptions to these declarations, they form a separate class to whom these declarations can in no wise apply. There are two, and only two, classes—the righteous and the wicked. The scriptures do not teach that there is a class between those who are under the law and those under grace; there can be no medium between condemnation and justification. I know of none who stand free from condemnation but those who are justified; and I cannot conceive how any can be justified except through faith in Christ. See Rom. iii, v and vi. And if vengeance be taken "on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," of course those only will escape who know God and obey the gospel. When the Lord says "he will plead with all flesh," it is to "give them that are wicked to the sword." Jer. xxv, 31. He will "lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isa. xiii, 9. Though the land be desolate, only the sinners will be destroyed. Again, when the earth is utterly emptied, "the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left." Isa. xxiv, 6. Who they few men are may be learned from verses 13, 14: "When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning-grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice, THEY shall sing for the majesty of the Lord." The righteous will sing their triumph, as is shown in Rev. xv. These "few men" are not "left" upon the earth, else the earth would not be made waste and "utterly emptied" but they are left from the burning. The prophet Joel says, "the Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall shake." Jeremiah says he shall shout against all the inhabitants of the land; and Joel adds, "But the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." Daniel had a view of the same overthrow of the nations, and to him the angel said, "There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Dan. xii, 1. This is when Michael stands up or reigns. It is evident that this deliverance takes place at the coming of Christ, and not at any subsequent time. Although there may be no dissent from this view, I will notice a few parallel texts from the New Testament. Says Paul: "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you: and to you, who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God," 2 Thess. i, 6-8. In his first epistle to the same church he offers words of comfort; that when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, the righteous dead, them which sleep in Jesus, shall arise, and the living be changed, and all caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so ever to be with him. He adds, "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." 1 Thess. v, 1-3. With "the times and the seasons" of which he speaks, he has here inseparably connected certain events; to wit, the coming of the day of the Lord, the descent of the Lord himself, the resurrection of the righteous dead, the change of the living, their ascension to meet the Lord in the air, and the destruction of those who say Peace and safety, are those who are appointed to wrath. Verse 3. At the coming of Christ the wheat and tares (righteous and wicked) are gathered, the first in the Lord's garner the second in bundles to be burned. Matt. xiii, 24-30; also xxiv, 31; Rev. xiv, 14-20. Many others might be noticed, but these must suffice for the present. J. H. W.